Past the pandemic, more companies have implemented flexible working arrangements with the option to work from home on certain days of the week. As such, having a home printer would make the lives of employees much easier.
Whatever you normally print in the office, a home printer allows you to print while working from home – rather than having to head back to the office for printing purposes.
Read Also: Buying A Printer Or Printing From Shops: Which Should You Choose While Working From Home
Type Of Printers: Inkjet VS Ink Tank VS LED Printers
Inkjet printers use ink to operate, and are good for printing image-heavy documents. They suit employees looking for high-quality results, and who print a lot of graphics. Inkjet printers are usually preferred by home users and small offices.
One of the main features of the Ink Tank printer is that you can be top up with liquid ink that generally costs cheaper than the traditional cartridge. For example, Challenger sells Epson ink bottles for just $9.90 ($9.60 for ValueClub members). In contrast, the price range for the ink cartridges Challenger carries is between $13.20 to $77.10 (accurate as of 9 June 2022). The idea is to avoid paying for expensive cartridges.
Laser printers use toner cartridges instead. They are generally quieter and have a faster printing speed than Ink Tank printers. Busy offices and larger businesses mean higher print volumes, so they often choose laser printers for their business-focused features, such as advanced security features, large replacement supply yields and optional trays for additional capacity.
LED printers are virtually identical to laser printers, except that LED printers have fewer moving parts. Therefore, they have the potential to be cheaper, faster and more reliable than laser.
When choosing a printer, you would typically look at speed – the ppm (pages per minute) and ipm (images per minute). Today, most printers come with basic functions such as doubling up as scanners for your documents and wireless connection.
Below are 7 colour printers that can make your Work-From-Home arrangement much more pleasant and productive.
Read also: 5 Computer Monitors & Screens (Under $250) To Enhance Your Work-From-Home Experience
#1 Canon MAXIFY MB5170
Price: $389
Printing method: Inkjet
Printing speed: Up to 32.5 ppm
Maximum Input capacity: 250 sheets
Maximum output capacity: 75 sheets
Dimensions (W x D x H): 463 x 394 x 291 mm
Weight: 11.4 kg
The Canon Maxify MB5170 can cut your scanning time in half. The Single Pass Two-Sided Auto Document Feeder (ADF) feature printing both sides of your documents simultaneously. You also get at least 50% ink savings with Canon’s genuine PGI-2700XL ink cartridges. This printer saves you time, money and resources, while giving you a surplus of connectivity options (and none of them involve a router!)
With MAXIFY Cloud Link, you can connect to Dropbox, Mopria, Google Drive, Apple AirPrint and OneDrive. On the mobile front, the MAXIFY Printing Solutions App lets you print from your Android/ iOS devices.
#2 HP OfficeJet Pro 8020e All-in-One Printer
Price: $199
Printing method: Ink Tank
Printing speed: Up to 20 ppm (black) and 10ppm (colour)
Maximum Input capacity: 225 sheets
Maximum output capacity: 60 sheets
Dimensions (W x D x H): 460 x 341.2 x 234 mm
Weight: 8.2 kg
The HP OfficeJet Pro 8020e All-in-One Printer comes with fancy dual band wireless connectivity and smooth integration with the cloud. Printing can be voice-activated, thanks to compatibility with Alexa and Google Assistant. Save even more time and hassle with the 2.65” touchscreen display, which comes in a full-colour design (with high contrast) for high visibility. That is in contrast to the monochrome display of many printers.
If you want a particular printing preset for your documents (maybe you need them printed on both sides or on templates), you can create that preset. In all printing sessions from then on, all you have to do to activate/ deactivate that preset is hit a button dedicated to your customised printing preset. That button is called a macro, and it lets you skip the repetition of keying in the same printing preset over and over each time you need your documents printed a certain way.
#3 Epson L5190 Wi-Fi All-in-One Ink Tank Printer with ADF
Price: $398
Printing method: Ink Tank
Printing speed: Up to 33 ipm (black) and 15 ipm (colour)
Maximum input capacity: 100 sheets
Maximum output capacity: 30 sheets
Dimensions (W x D x H): 375 x 347 x 237 mm
Weight: 5kg
Despite the cheap refilling costs as mentioned above, the Epson L5190 Wi-Fi All-in-One Ink Tank Printer with ADF does not compromise in printing resolution. Print quality comes at a remarkable 5760 x 1400 dpi, or dots per inch.
Even if your WFH workspace is in a separate room from your printer, a host of connectivity features overcome the distance for your printing needs. Epson Connect lets you use any of six applications for wireless printing. You have Epson iPrint for printing/ scanning to online cloud storage services, and Epson Email Print for emails. Remote Print Driver allows you to print to any Internet-connected Epson printer in the world via your PC. Your other mobile solutions are Google Cloud Print, Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service.
Beyond the applications, the L5190 brings you Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi and Ethernet. Wi-Fi Direct lets you connect up to eight devices without a router!
#4 Brother HL-L3270CDW
Price: $358
Printing method: LED
Printing speed: Up to 25 ppm
Maximum input capacity: 150 sheets
Maximum output capacity: 150 sheets
Dimensions (W x D x H): 439 x 461 x 252 mm
Weight: 18.5kg
The Brother HL-L3270CDW comes with built-in Wi-Fi and Ethernet, so you can share the printer with multiple family members on your network. You can activate NFC (Near Field Communication) on your phone in integration with the printer’s NFC reader — with one effortless tap, you can wirelessly print documents from your phone. The Brother iPrint&Scan mobile app makes sure of that.
At 18.5kg, Brother HL-L3270CDW has some considerable heft to it. That increases if you load as much printing paper as this model accommodates.
#5 HP Colour Laser MFP 178nw
Price: $379
Printing method: Laser
Printing speed: Up to 19 cpm (copies per minute)
Maximum Input capacity: 150 sheets
Maximum output capacity: 50 sheets
Dimensions (W x D x H): 406 x 363 x 288.7 mm
Weight: 12.94 kg
The HP Colour Laser MFP 178nw has a monthly duty cycle (maximum printing output) of up to 20,000 A4 pages. If that sounds fearsome, this printer’s connectivity is robust enough to be cross-platform. That applies to Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Mopria, and HP Smart App (not to mention Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi and Ethernet). The HP Smart App, in particular, lets you integrate Smart Tasks with your mobile, which includes scanning documents with your phone camera.
Additionally, the Smart App lets you create and save Smart Tasks (shortcuts to perform repetitive functions) which include such as scanning to email, the cloud, the printer or a multiple destinations at the same time. The printer’s on-board website also allows configuration; you can cut costs by restricting access to features, like colour printing. You can monitor usage and set up/ execute functions efficiently.
#6. Brother MFC-J4340DW Inkjet Printer
Price: $328
Printing method: Inkjet
Printing speed: Up to 20ppm (colour) and 19 (black)
Maximum Input capacity: 150 sheets
Maximum output capacity: 50 sheets
Dimensions (W x D x H): 406 x 363 x 288.7 mm
Weight: 12.94 kg
Designed for professional colour and optimised for greater cost savings, the Brother MFC-J4340DW Inkjet Printer delivers superb colour performance with Wifi connectivity.
The MFC-J4340DW Inkjet Printer features multi-functional devices delivering unrivalled build quality, you’ll be able to execute any work-related task with ease. It is designed to help you print and scan a variety of documents, with high yield ink cartridges that deliver huge savings on printing costs.
If you are working from home, all the more you need a flexible and dependable printer that you can count on.
#7 Canon PIXMA G4010
Price: $369
Printing method: Inkjet
Printing speed: 8.8 ipm (black) / 5.0ipm (colour)
Maximum Input capacity: 100 sheets
Maximum output capacity: up to 1500 sheets
Dimensions (W x D x H): 445 x 330 x 197mm
Weight: 7.3 kg
Canon PIXMA G4010 is an all-in-one printer with Print, Scan, Copy and Fax functions that is designed for high volume printing. It runs on a refillable ink tank, helping you to keep your printing costs low. This is an ideal home printer if you are currently working in an administrative-heavy role and requires regular paper documentation.
You can choose from a variety of printing solutions such as Google Cloud Print, Apple AirPrint, Mopria Print Service and Smart Device Print Plug-In (for Android / Amazon device). Alternatively, iOS and Android users can activate printing via the Canon PRINT Inkjet/SELPHY App while Windows RT users can do so via Canon Easy-PhotoPrint. It also has wireless connection and is compatible with Mac OS X v10.10.5 – v10.11, Mac OS v10.12, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 SP1.
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